On the Ancient Magics
by guildsbounty
Summary: Something has come to Hogwarts; a young man with a power not seen in 3000 years has appeared, one who wields magic not by wand and incantation, but by the force of his will alone: a Mage
1. Chapter 1

"What do you all know about ancient magic?"

It was an odd question to open class with, even odder was the teacher who had spoken it, the gaunt, old ghost never talked about anything interesting, he just droned on and on about the history of wizardry. This came across as extremely random, especially since school had only been in session for about a week.

For a brief moment, silence filled the classroom as the class seemed to stir to life, looking at each other, trying to figure out what he was asking.

No one was surprised when the first hand up belonged to a brown-haired girl, but they were surprised when she didn't answer the question, but asked one of her own, her voice carrying a slight British accent, "Professor, hasn't wizardry always been fundamentally the same, even since before the time of Merlin?"

"That would be correct, Miss Granger, but that is not what I asked, what do you know about ancient magic?"

For a moment, she just stared, everyone seeming a bit stunned that she hadn't known the answer.

With a sigh, the ghost continued speaking, "I suppose you couldn't be expected to know this, the last known wielder of the ancient magics died nearly three thousand years ago. These magic users, known not as wizards, but as mages, drew their power in a way that is fundamentally different from what we do here. A modern wizard draws on magic through incantation and wand, but the ancient mages could wield magic by the force of their will alone."

Everyone in the class looked at each other, trying to figure out how he had managed to change topics like this, the class before this one he had been talking about some wizard who had done something tricky at some point…no one could really remember…well, no one except possibly 'Miss Granger.'

"Another fundamental difference in the power of a mage is that their power is something that cannot be taught, for every one of them, the way they used their power was a little different. Similarly, it is stated that there was nothing that could match a mage's ability to cause destruction."

A skinny, red-haired boy spoke up, "So they were more powerful than wizards?"

"Not more powerful, Mr. Weasley, different. A wizard possesses a far wider range of abilities than a mage does, possessing their strengths in many different fields. For example, mages are not capable of transmogrification, alteration magic, flight, and many other powers. However, their skill in combat oriented magic is unmatched, and many mages, rather than work with the subtlety that a wizard is capable of, would much rather simply blast the problem away. They also possessed skills in defensive magic and restorative magic, but tend to possess particular skill within the use of a single elemental field rather than the range of magic we use."

For once, the entire class was paying attention, this was something interesting, most of them had heard of mages at some point, but the way they had been presented made them seem like the stuff of fairy tales.

"Now we will look at the effects that mages had on the wizarding community."

The class snapped into murmers, totally ignored by the spectral teacher.

He then promptly launched into an increasingly boring discussion, talking about different wizards and how they had interacted with mages. Almost instantly, heads hit the desks as students returned to being thoroughly bored. Occasionally, they would perk up and listen as he would tell about different battles. It seemed that unlike the more modern wizards that lived in peace, mostly using their magic in constructive ways, the history of mages was awash in conflict.

Just before the class time ran out, another boy spoke up, he had brilliant green eyes and unruly brown hair, but the most distinguishing mark on him was a scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt, "Professor, what ever happened to the mages, why aren't any of them still around? Were they all killed off or something?"

"No one really knows, Mr. Potter, it seems like they just ceased to exist, vanishing without a trace."

At that, a tone sounded, signaling the dismissal of class. As everyone filtered out of the room, the three students that had spoken up in class met up in the hall, the red-haired boy speaking first, "Did it seem odd at all that he switched from talking about wizards that lived about a hundred years ago to talking about these magic users that died off three thousand years ago?"

The girl cut in, "I have to agree, but the strangest part is that none of us had ever heard anything about them before. You'd think if they were as powerful as they sound, that we'd have heard of them at some point."

"Well," added the green-eyed one, "I suppose if they went extinct that long ago, they may not be that important any more."

"Be that as it may, I'm curious now, especially on why he decided to switch to that topic so abruptly, so after class I'm going to go to the library, see if I can find anything."

"Alright, well, let's go Hermione, Ron."

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Afternoon found the brown-haired girl, Hermione, rifling through the school's vast library, searching through books. She had been here for a few hours now, and seemed to be getting frustrated.

A voice cut in, "Any luck, Hermione?"

She turned around to see the green-eyed boy standing behind her, "Hello, Harry, and no; it's really strange, I can't seem to find any books on them anywhere. I can't help but think that there has to be some somewhere, but the only place I haven't looked is the restricted section."

"Or maybe there really aren't any books on them. From what they sound like, they sound more like soldiers than scholars, so I could imagine that they wouldn't keep too detailed of records of themselves."

She turned a frowning look towards him, "But you see, I've found books from that time period, I've even found records of some of the wars that were described in class. But there is no mention of mages anywhere. But here's the weirdest part, there are gaps in the stories, gaps that were filled in by the stories that were told in class today. It's almost like…someone intentionally removed all mention of them from the books we can get to."

"Have you asked the librarian?"

Hermione glanced aside, "I did, and she told me that there were no records of them in the entire library, but she didn't seem surprised at all that I was asking about them."

Abruptly, Ron, the red-haired boy, came rushing into the library, as fast as he could move and not get in trouble, "Harry, Hermione, something's going on out in the nearest courtyard."

Setting the book she had down, Hermione followed the two boys out of the library, down a few flights of stairs, and out another door. The three of them stepped out onto a grassy courtyard. Just ahead of them were three people that they knew all too well; one thin, blonde boy with a cold sneer on his face, and two other boys that flanked him, both considerably taller and heavier than him. The blonde was standing right in the face of another boy who had dark brown hair, and a pair of very bright blue eyes, such a light shade that they could almost look white if viewed in the right light. He was a little shorter than the blonde he was standing toe-to-toe with, was dressed plainly in jeans and a hooded sweatshirt, and had a slightly irritated look on his face.

"I'll ask again!" the blonde boy growled out at the unknown boy, "What is a filthy Muggle doing at Hogwarts!?"

It seemed like this was the first time the blue-eyed boy spoke back, meeting the angry blonde's gaze, "I'm going to hazard a guess that you might be Lucius Malfoy's son…Draco."

Draco narrowed his eyes, stepping forward so he was right in the newcomer's face, "How do you know my father, he'd never associate himself with the likes of you."

Placing his right hand on Draco's shoulder, first bringing a look of anger and disgust to his face, promptly followed by Draco pivoting his head to stare at the hand on his shoulder in shock, the blue-eyes spoke, "Things aren't always as they seem, Draco Malfoy." As he spoke, anyone around would have sworn that the temperature in that area dropped like a stone.

The boy let go and the temperature seemed to flash back to normal; he pivoted around and calmly walked away. Behind him, Draco still stood there, staring at his shoulder in shock. Well, not specifically at his shoulder, but rather at the frost that now coated it.

The three friends looked at each other, Ron speaking first, "Did you see that?"

"See it?" Hermione shivered, "I think I felt it."

"So you felt the temperature drop too? I thought it was just me."

Harry shook his head, "But…Malfoy was right…I didn't sense any magic either, not even when he made the temperature drop and frosted over his shoulder. But it was obvious that he was the one who caused it. And, he didn't use a wand…that's just too weird."

Ron spoke up again, "Well, if he's a student here, he'll be around more and we can figure this out later, right now, it's dinner time."

The other two agreed and, leaving a still befuddled Draco behind, headed for the great hall.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The great hall was truly magnificent; four massive rows of tables ran the length of the enormous room, one for each of the houses. At the front of the hall stood another bank of tables where all the instructors would sit, and at the center of it, in a larger chair, sat the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. He was quite old, his snowy beard and hair running long enough that they could be easily tucked into his belt and a pair of bright blue eyes were partially hidden behind a pair of half-moon glasses that were perched on a long, crooked nose.

As everyone gathered into their seats, Dumbledore rose to his feet, causing the entire hall to fall silent.

"I would like to introduce you all to a guest that our school will be playing host to for some time. The Ministry of Magic, believing this would be an ideal place for him to stay for some time, sent him here. If you could all welcome Mr. Kale Jeremiah."

Off reflex, the entire hall started clapping, expecting to see an adult wizard step through the doors. Rather, a single, young person stepped in, his pale blue eyes surveying the hall, his clothing having not changed at all since his little run-in with Draco Malfoy.

Almost immediately, the applause was replaced with rapid whispering, everyone trying to figure out what was going on.

Dumbledore continued, "I cannot stress how unusual of a situation this is, but I believe that all of you learned something about Mr. Kale during class today."

Murmering ran through the entire room as people were trying to figure out what every one of them had heard about in class that day.

As 'Mr. Kale' reached the raised front platform, the old headmaster spoke again, "Mr. Kale has requested that I not directly state exactly why he is here, or what his special case is, but rather is curious to see how quickly you all figure it out." Albus looked over at the bright-eyed young man and nodded.

The young man stepped forward, picking up an apple from the end of the Slytherin table. His blue eyes closed as he seemed to focus. For a moment, nothing, then a bluish tint overtook the apple and the people closest to him felt the intense cold that was coming from it. Then Kale's hand opened, dropping the apple to the ground, shattering into countless pieces on impact. He stepped back, and the temperature snapped back to normal.

Dumbledore spoke up, "Any guesses as to what Mr. Kale's special case is?"

A muttered bit of speech came from the Slytherin table, "A freak…"

The comment was soundly ignored, then tentatively, Hermione spoke up, "He's not…a mage…is he?"

"Very good, Miss Granger, five points to Griffindor; as was said, Mr. Kale is, in fact, a mage, the first confirmed mage in three thousand years. This is why I requested specific teachers inform you of their prior existence so that you would know something about our guest. Depending on which teacher instructed you on mages, you will most likely know different information ranging from their history, to even their different abilities."

The young man seemed to shift uncomfortably as he glanced around the entire room worth of people staring at him, obviously not too thrilled about being up in front like that. His displeasure at being up front was made even more obvious when he looked over at Dumbledore with a look on his face that said 'That's nice, can I leave now?'

The old wizard didn't look over to see the expression, and kept speaking, "For the moment, he will be staying in guest quarters, but we plan to insert him into one of the houses eventually."

That said, he offered a nod at the young man and, without another word, he disappeared out a side door.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

A few days later and the weekend had come, the memory of the arrival of a mage having simply become an accepted fact, and the school had more or less moved on. Especially since the young mage didn't go to any classes, picked up his food at the Great Hall to take back to his quarters, and was generally a very scarce sight. However, there were a few people that had been transfixed by the idea of something that hadn't been seen in three thousand years living in the same place as them, and were always trying to catch him to drill him with questions, but every time they tried, he always managed to evade or lose them before they could corner him. And since that first demonstration, no one had seen him use magic at all.

However, a new occurrence had quickly distracted the school from their unusual guest, an occurrence by the name of Delores Umbridge. Despite that, life moved on at the school, despite all the new complaints about the Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

"I don't understand that at all!" exclaimed a girl, pivoting to look at the other girl she walked with, her shoulder-length brown hair flaring out as she whirled, "How are we supposed to learn with nothing but a theoretical understanding of defense against the dark arts? I mean, so what if they ministry says there's nothing to worry about; just speaking academically, you can't learn something like that just from a book."

Her friend shrugged, looking down the grassy hill they walked along and out at the lake, "I don't see any use complaining about it, it's not like it'll change because we don't like it."

The first girl made a face that twisted her nose slightly to the side, "But it's annoying! If she's still here next year, how're we ever going to pass our OWLS?"

"This from the girl whose worst subject is Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Believe me, I know…and this isn't going to help the matter."

The two were cut short in their conversation as a high-pitched voice yelled from up the hill a little way, "Hey Rayburn!"

The brown-haired girl looked uphill at the source of the voice to see a blonde girl with a wand drawn, aimed right at her.

Frantically, the girl's hands dove into her robes, going for her wand…only to be a little too slow as a spell sprung from the lips of the blonde, her wand emitting a flash of light.

The brunette felt the heavy impact of the spell against her chest as it threw her backwards. She came down on her butt, hard, and would have stopped there if it weren't for the steep slope of the hill she was on. Instead, she pitched backwards, tumbling head-over-heels down the hill, headed straight for the lake. She set her teeth as she tumbled down the hill, bracing for the shock of the lake's cold water.

A dizzying moment later, it occurred to her that she wasn't falling anymore, but was sitting on something smooth and flat and became aware of a slight pressure against her back. A brief moment passed as more of her senses managed to get re-oriented, registering the sound of someone breathing hard and then realizing how cold whatever she was sitting on was.

A voice came through the panting, spoken softly, "You okay?"

She nodded, "Y-yeah." As she spoke, her eyes slid open a little, only to snap open as she recognized the shoreline of the lake some twenty feet away from her…but she was on the wrong side of it. Panning down, her mouth fell open as she registered that she wasn't sitting on ground, but on ice that extended ahead of her in a narrow fan-shaped field of ice that connected to the shore. Staring, she noticed one spot in the ice, off to the far left of her, right by the shore, that looked like the water had been frozen mid-splash. Slowly, she looked up and over her left shoulder…nothing there, she looked the other way to come eye-to-eye with a pair of pale blue eyes.

For a brief moment she just stared, not immediately recognizing the person that held her; but it came to her quickly…the mage.

He was silent for a moment, then asked another question, "Can you walk?"

Still stunned, she nodded.

He gave a little smile, "Good, cuz it's really hard to keep the ice from breaking like this; sooner we get off of it, the less likely we end up swimming."

At about that moment, she realized that the heavy breathing was coming from him and started a little, "O-oh, okay." She got her hands under herself and carefully pushed herself to her feet, only slipping once as she got up. Immediately, she started walking towards shore, testing her footing as she walked to make sure she wouldn't break through when she stepped down.

In only a moment, she'd made it to the shore and, still slightly in shock, turned around to look out at where she had been; the ice was already breaking up into chunks and starting to float away, melting quickly. A moment of silence passed, then she looked around, trying to locate the person that had been out there with her, only to find that he had walked off and was already a good thirty yards away. Her indecision only lasted an instant before she broke into a jog, chasing after him, "Hey, wait up!"

He paused, looking back at the girl; he was dressed in the same style as he had been in the first day he came, blue jeans and a hooded sweatshirt, the only real difference being the color of the sweatshirt and the fact that the sleeves were shoved up.

A moment later, she caught up, stood still for a moment, and then took a quick, but deep, breath, "Thank you for catching me."

He was silent a moment, looking a little surprised, then, despite still breathing a little heavy, offered a smile, "You're welcome."

A moment passed as she returned the smile, then a thought occurred to her and she wheeled around to see her friend coming down the hill towards her, the blonde girl that had attacked her nowhere in sight.

The young mage spoke again, drawing her attention back, "Well…see ya."

She turned back towards him as he turned to walk away, tucking his hands into the pouch-pocket on the front of his shirt, "Wait…your…name is Kale, right? I'm Eva, Eva Rayburn, it's…it's nice to meet you."

He glanced back at her over his shoulder for a moment, getting a good look at her face, "Nice to meet you too…Eva. See ya." With that, he turned back away and walked off, continuing on his way.

When he was a good twenty yards away, Eva's friend caught up, "Oh my gosh, are you alright!?"

"Y-yeah…" her gaze still hadn't left Kale's back.

"I'm sorry, she ran off before I had a chance to get her back for you."

Eva jerked, looking back at her friend, "H-huh? Oh…that's alright, we can get her back later."

"But…wow, I didn't know that a mage's magic was on that much of a scale. We only ever saw him freeze an apple, I didn't know he was able to freeze a big chunk of the lake"

Eva looked back out at the lake, the last few chunks of ice drifting away and melting quickly, "It seemed like doing that much was hard on him…he was breathing pretty hard."

"Huh, I guess I did overhear another student say something about that…using magic drains their physical energy, so they train their bodies as well as learning magic."

"Yeah…so how in the world did he get out there to catch me?"

"I didn't see him at first, and didn't recognize who he was when I did. But he must have heard the fight and saw you falling down the hill, because all I saw was him take off running to try and intercept you. At first I thought he was going to end up in the lake too because he wasn't really watching where he was going. But when his foot hit the water, it splashed a little bit, then everything started to freeze and the whole chunk that got frozen froze really fast. Then, well, you went skidding out onto the ice and he caught you. And that's about when I realized that Pole had run off."

Eva turned, looking back towards where Kale had gone, "Getting back at Pole aside, I never really thought about it before, He seemed like he was antisocial or something, but he seems like he could be a pretty nice guy…"

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-


	2. Chapter 2

It was raining…and he ran through it…dashing down the sidewalk in a large city, looking back every so often to see if anyone pursued. Still at a dead sprint, he burst out onto a crosswalk, cutting across a street. A horn blared and he looked to his right, seeing a car headed straight for him, neither could get out of the other's way in time.

For a moment, the world seemed to go into slow motion, the car coming straight for him, the blaring of its horn, the screech of its breaks, and the rush of his own breath. He exhaled heavily; only to notice that, despite it being summer, he could see his breath billowing in front of him, a shimmer of blue lit his vision, and the temperature around him plummeted. Around him, the rain crystallized and ice spread across the ground at his feet, instantly crossing the distance between himself and the oncoming car.

A loud bang was heard as the ice coated the tires, freezing them to the ground, the force of the sudden change in speed shredding the rubber. Now skidding in its rims, the car kept coming for only another moment before the rims themselves froze and the metal shattered. A mere second later, the car came to a stop, solidly frozen to the ground.

The world went dark, only to sharply be illuminated by a pair of oval orbs of pale blue light, the only thing visible in a vast expanse of darkness.

He looked up at the blue lights, glaring at them, "Why did you insist on showing me that again?"

A voice spoke, deep, gravely, and cold, coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once, "You still have never thanked me for that, kid."

"Why would I thank you for doing yourself a favor?"

"True, I suppose, it would be quite inconvenient for you to die on me."

"Yeah yeah, that's nice…now shut up and let me sleep in peace."

"I would, but it is time for you to wake up."

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Pale blue eyes slid open, staring up at the ceiling of his room and a long sigh came out of his mouth. The sun was just cresting the horizon, shedding light into the guest room he slept in. A moment of lying in bed later, the young man rolled to the side and swung out of his bed, walking towards the bathroom.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

"I don't care for the situation, Albus, what is the point of the ministry sending a mage to Hogwarts, it's not like he can learn our spells." A woman, with a sharply pointed hat and a stern look about her, spoke, talking to the headmaster of the school, Professor Albus Dumbledore.

"I understand your concern, Minerva, but from my conversations with Mr. Finch on the matter, it seems that he is more concerned, not with seeing that Mr. Jeremiah be in school, but to ensure that he is kept somewhere where he can be watched closely, and taught to value the things that the Wizarding World in general values. I'm sure that you have, at least, a working knowledge of the history of mages."

The woman nodded, "Yes, I am aware of how violent their history was, but this boy seems to be peaceful enough."

"Yes, that he does, but if you remember certain stories of the past, even a seemingly harmless mage is capable of great destruction when angered. And quite unlike a wizard, a skilled mage can unleash his power at a thought, not needing to draw a wand and prepare an incantation. In short, the ministry is afraid of him; his magic is untraceable by current means, and they fear that he will some day live out the same path that so many mages before him have. They sent him here so that they could know where he was at all times, and so that should something happen, he won't be out on his own."

"And you agreed to this?"

"Yes, but not for their reasons, Hogwarts is a place for underage magic users to learn how to use their powers, a difference in method of magic makes no difference to me. He is here as a student, and will be treated as such."

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

"So he froze a piece of the Black Lake to save you from falling in?"

"Yeah, he did."

"Wow, so what're you gonna do to Pole to get her back?"

"I've got some ideas I want to try mixing up."

"Oh, not going to just hex her?"

"Nah, subtlety is way more fun."

Eva sat in her usual spot at the Ravenclaw table, waiting for dinner to appear. She was interrupted from conversation with her friends as, from the faculty end of the Great Hall, Dumbledore rose to his feet and spoke, "Students, if I could have your attention for a moment…" He strode forward from his seat to where a stool sat on the raised platform, most people just then noticing the beat-up old wizard hat that sat atop it.

"As I mentioned a few days ago when talking about our new guest, Kale Jeremiah, we plan to sort him into one of the house until such time that he departs from our company. We will have him sorted in just as First Years are sorted; Kale, if you could come forward please."

All eyes snapped to the back of the room where the mage, Kale, leaned against a pillar. Without a word, he pushed off the pillar and walked forward.

Dumbledore motioned towards the stool, lifting the old hat off of it, "Please have a seat."

Kale complied and the hat was plopped on top his head.

The moment it contacted his head, the hat stirred to life, shifting slightly atop his head. For a few moments, all was silent, the students waiting for the verdict from that old hat.

Finally, it shouted out, "Best put you in…Ravenclaw!"

A moment of awkward silence passed among three of the four tables, none of the other houses having expected that decision, figuring he'd be placed in Slytherin. The Ravenclaw table too, was silent for a moment, then clapping started, from one person, but quickly spread through the table, until the usual cheering that was associated with the addition of a new house member joining quickly erupted.

A tiny smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, Kale got up from the stool and walked towards the cheering table.

For the briefest moment, Eva sat still, then she hopped up and trotted up to Kale, "Hey, come sit with us, you'd be in our year, right?"

He tilted his head to the side a little, "Fourth?"

"Yep, come on!"

The little smile spread a bit and he let himself get tugged over to where several people his age slid apart on the long benches to make room for him to sit down. For a moment, everyone around where he sat down was quiet, then Eva slipped over the bench, sitting next to him, "Everybody, this is Kale Jeremiah, Kale this is Susan Integra," a long-haired brunette with gray eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses that nodded at him from behind a book, "Michael Farris," short red-hair and dark green eyes, he waved, his mouth full of chicken leg, "and Jennifer Harrison," a short girl with blonde hair about to her shoulders and brown eyes who smiled up at him before reaching for her cup. "And if you don't remember, I'm..."

"Eva Rayburn, right?" he finished for her.

She paused a moment, then smiled, "You did remember."

He let out a little laugh, "Yeah, guess I did, anyway, nice to meet all of you."

A chorus of agreement came back from the three students.

"We're all fourth years, so we should have all the same classes together, wait...are they putting you in classes?"

"Some of `em, anything that requires magic I'm exempted from."

"So that'd be Charms, Transmogrification, Divination, and Defense Against the Dark Arts?"

"Close, but I'm still in Defense Against the Dark Arts for some reason, even though I can't use any of the magic that you do."

Eva huffed, "Well that's fine then, it's not like we actually DO any magic in that class, we just memorize things."

Kale's eyes narrowed, "A class called Defense Against the Dark Arts, and you don't put any defensive things into practice? That seems a little...dumb."

"Exactly! How in the world can we possibly hope to even pass our OWLs when we get to them, there's a practical section to them!"

The red-haired boy, Michael, cut in, "I think you're missing the point a bit there, forget OWLs, how are we going to learn to defend ourselves? Especially with all this talk about, well...You Know Who returning."

The blonde, Jennifer, spoke up, "That again? The only evidence that there is to support that is the testimony of that Harry Potter, and we all know what the Ministry has been saying, along with the Daily Prophet."

Eva cut back in, "Regardless, I've done some research, the only thing that could have killed Cedric Diggory like that is the Killing Curse. Even if it wasn't...Him, someone used that forbidden curse against Cedric, which means that there IS something out there that we need to be able to defend ourselves against."

Silence for a moment, everyone thinking that through...right up until Kale spoke, "Sorry, what's going on? What's all this about killing curses, defending, and this 'you know who'?"

Everyone stared at him, then the girl with the glasses, Susan, spoke, "You grew up around ordinary Muggles, didn't you?"

"Um, I wouldn't really call all of them ordinary, but yeah, I did."

"Then I guess you wouldn't know, sixteen years ago, before we were born, there was a dark wizard that nearly destroyed the entire wizarding society, he killed countless people, but was defeated when one of his killing curses rebounded off a baby named Harry Potter, that's the skinny kid with messy hair sitting right over there." she pointed over at the Griffindor table to where said boy was talking to his friends.

Kale nodded, "Okay, I'm following so far, big bad wizard nearly destroys everything, then gets killed by his own curse...pretty undignified way to die if ya ask me...so what's the big deal?"

The girl pushed her glasses up her nose, "Well, last year this school hosted a Wizard Tournament, Harry Potter was one of the contestants, and at the end he appeared back in the starting zone with one of the other contestants, Cedric Diggory, who had been killed by the Killing Curse, Avada Kadavra. He claimed that the Dark Lord had been reborn and had killed Cedric. And, up to now, the Ministry of Magic has been denying any possibility that He is back and have been black-balling both Potter and Professor Dumbledore."

Kale looked up at the artificial sky of the Great Hall for a moment, "I don't suppose this dark wizard's name was...ah, what was it...sounded like some kind of field rodent...Vole-something or other..."

Eva turned to look at him, "You've heard of him?"

"Only through a friend, he told me about some Dark Lord that trashed stuff up pretty bad and was the reason for some of his research."

"A friend? You were friends with a wizard growing up?"

"Well, you'd call him a Muggle, but he's a scientist...the scary kind, some of the stuff he's made still blows my mind."

"Wait, if he's a Muggle, how did he know about all of that?"

Kale shrugged, picking over the food on the table, and taking a bite of chicken, "Dunno, he always seemed to know more than he was supposed to, about everything. Once the ministry found me, he contacted me and made me promise to keep quiet about who he was though...said if his identity got out some wizard would come to try and erase his memory, then that wizard would end up getting hurt, and it'd all just go downhill from there. Maybe I'll call him up about this, see if he knows anything, it'll have to wait until I can get off Hogwarts grounds though."

"Why? Is your friend that worried about secrecy?"

"No, Muggle technology doesn't work here, and that's my way of contacting him."

Susan peeked back up from behind her book, "Muggle Technology? What kind?"

"Um, I don't actually know what it's called, he made it...went on for a while about how it was a 'portable unit transmitting exclusively to him in a secured, self-randomizing encrypted channel that would take the best cryptologist in the world a couple years to decode a single message'."

Everyone just stared at him for a moment, "Oh, I don't have a clue what that actually means, just that when I talk to him on that thing, it's private. He really is kind of a mad scientist, half the time I have no idea what he's talking about."

Jennifer spoke, looking a bit confused, "Mad?"

Kale let out a little laugh, "Not mad angry...more like, crazy. Most the stuff he makes is pretty destructive, and he kinda gets a kick out of when stuff blows up."

Jennifer's eyes went wide, "He sounds a little...dangerous."

"Oh, he is...but he's good at what he does, and I guess that's what counts."

Eva chipped in, "So is he like...really dangerous? Like, being around him is a bad idea?"

"Well...I guess that depends. It's easy to get hurt being around him...but its always an accident. But as long as you listen to him, and when he tells you to stay somewhere and do something, you do it...it isn't a problem at all."

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Elsewhere...

A young man standing over a workbench that held some unidentifiable mass of technology, a steel welding mask obscuring his face cut short in his work, "My ears are burning..."

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Michael let out a little laugh, "Well, at the least, he seems like an interesting guy...but enough about someone that we'll probably never meet, how `bout you, where are you from?"

Kale leaned forward, reaching for a roll, "All over England really, I've bounced foster home to foster home most my life...mix in a bit of living out on the streets the times I ran away, and I'd say I've lived across a good portion of the country."

"Foster home?" asked Jennifer, her mouth falling open, "Oh, I'm sorry."

Kale waved her off, "Don' worry about it, I never knew my parents...and most of my foster home bouncing was because my magic tended to freak out anyone who saw it...but they wouldn't tell anyone else about it because if they did, they couldn't get rid of me. I think my record was two days before a foster parent was trying to give me back."

Three of the four people stared at him sympathetically...Susan seeming too engrossed in her book to notice.

"Oh come on, don't look at me like that...it doesn't bother me at all, anyway, where are you all from?"

"Worcester," "York," "Bristol," "Holyhead," came the replies from Eva, Jennifer, Michael, and Susan respectively.

Silence for a moment, as Kale nodded and munched away on his roll, then Michael asked the question that he knew was coming. "So, could you tell us more about your magic? I mean, if you want to."

Kale looked over at him, mouth full of bread, then finished chewing and swallowed the bite, "Not sure what ya mean, it's just somethin I can do."

"Well, like...how do you cast spells, we use wands and incantations, how do you do it?"

Kale rubbed the back of his head, "Um, I still don't quite follow, it's not like I 'cast spells' to use my magic, it's just something that I can do. I mean, how does your heart keep beating, how do you move your hands...it's on the same level for me, natural. I don't learn spells, I just figure out new ways of manipulating the power."

Eva spoke for the rest of them, "Okay, I guess that makes sense...so, what all can you do?"

"Well, you about saw my limit yesterday with the amount I can freeze, and right now I can only freeze things that I am physically touching. But I know I can freeze things at range, I just can't figure out how to do it."

"But if you've never done it before, how do you know you can?"

He let out a little laugh, "I never said I hadn't done it before, I just said I don't know how I did it. It's like my body knows how to use magic in ways my brain doesn't, so it kinda reacts reflexively in ways I don't understand, only ever happens when I'm in danger though."

"In danger? What kind of danger?"

"Well, like...getting hit by a car or something...that's how wizards first found out about me, I almost got hit and reflexively froze a whole bunch of stuff, right in front of a wizard. He kinda freaked out and started yelling something about underage magic or something, and it just kinda went from there." Kale took the last bite of his roll and looked around at everyone else, all of them done eating, "So...where do we live?"

Michael stood up, "Ravenclaw tower, come on, we'll show you the way."

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The group of people came to a stop after a long walk up many a winding staircase, standing in front of a heavy wooden door. Eva walked forward and knocked on it. Almost instantly, a voice came from the door, "Topic: Muggle Studies, What is the specific name of the device that powers Muggle automobiles?"

For an instant, the group looked at each other, all of them thinking, then Kale posed his question, "Um, what's going on?"

Eva looked back at him, "This is the door to the Common Room, to get in you have to answer whatever academic question it asks."

"So, wouldn't the answer be 'Internal Combustion Engine'?"

"Correct." came the voice from the door, and it swung open.

The other four looked over at him and he shrugged, "Hey, I grew up a Muggle, remember? If I didn't know stuff like that, something's wrong. But, was that really a hard question?"

Susan replied, "Most wizards don't know very much about Muggle technology, since they live with magic and have no use for it."

Jennifer giggled as they all walked through the door, "Between the four of us, Muggle Studies is the one thing that the door can stump us with, Eva is our potions and herbology master, Michael's best at all the spell stuff, like Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts, Susan loves all the history and anything else that involves reading, and I like all the theoretical and numbers stuff."

Kale didn't reply, looking around the large room, decorated in the silver and blue of Ravenclaw. He looked very much in awe of the large chairs and other luxuries that were simply scattered around the room.

Michael nudged him, "Come on, boy's dormitories are up this way."

Still seeming a bit shell shocked, Kale nodded, "Okay..."


End file.
